Rose of Sharron is in bloom

The tree is in full bloom, about two weeks ahead of its normal schedule, and the bees are going nuts on it. During the day the entire tree actually buzzes with such intensity that you can’t tell what part of the tree is making the noise. On closer examination, you realize it’s not a single section, but every branch has at least a few bees on it. While I can’t be sure all the honey bees I see on it are from my hive, there are a lot of bumble bees as well, making me wonder if they ever fight for a flower, or if there are so many that they just shuffle into position before ravaging the flower and moving onto the next one. I’ve never witnessed a bee fight, but I bet somebody gets stung.

According the FDA, the average worker bee makes 12 or more trips from the hive per day, but only bringing back pollen from a single flower variety each trip. A single worker will have visited a few thousand flowers each day.